Scummy Pumps and Reservoir...but why?

Hey riu,

Just wondering if anyone may know what is causing thus scummy build up in my pumps and res?

Thanks in advance

algae, bacteria or fungi, water quality.
hydrogen peroxide, hydrozyme, sm90, even a chunk of bar soap will prevent it.

Brown algae. It's typical and is caused by warm temperatures and lots of organic material (nutrients) in the water.

The biggest problem most hydro growers make is leaving nutrient rich water in their systems at too warm a temperature for too long. You WILL get brown slime algae every single time doing that.

The single easiest way to stop it is to run a UV sterilizer in line. Barring that, frequent water changes with fresh, clean RO water will also prevent it completely.

But that's a lot of work...which is why most people really shouldn't be doing hydro because to do it right is really a lot of work and most people simply are too lazy to do it properly.

Thanks guys the brown algae explanation makes sense as temps are a constant battle here. Ive been running h202 @ 1ml/10l the last few weeks which helps and just started with the same of dripclean as well. Changing res every 4 days and scrubbing the pumps ajd tanks before refilling. Bit hard to clean all the lines without pulling all the girls out for a few hours each res change and running a concentrated cleaner through the system which i really cbf doing every change so leave it for everytime i flip. Am icing the res and generally have the temps between 22-26c which i know is pushing the top end of where it can be. I looked into ro but cant afford the outlay or the waste water so will start collecting rainwater soon and using that. Any other suggestions or tricks?

Grow in soil. If you can't afford to do hydro right, just do it in soil. By constantly having to fight by not having the proper resources, all you're doing is throwing good money after bad.

Go to soil and the problem disappears completely and you probably wind up with better product as well as saving money.

Drain and clean/scrub the res and pump every 2 weeks, that white stuff is residue from the nutes.

Draining and cleaning every 4 days as it is so i think it must be on the temps and needing to keep them lower. This is my first proper grow so still ironing out the kinks of the system. Considering im running a 2k+ custom built system and work from home so can monitor 24/7 id say im in for hydro not soil. Thanks for the advice to scrap everything though that helped heaps with the algae!

Algae is a plant-it needs light to grow. Prevent light from getting to the solution stops growth-no algae, simple. I've had multiple grows in hydro with room/rez temps in the 80's and never had any issues.